Speaking at a Nordea industry conference in London on Wednesday, Koskull said: “It is an industry, or group of industries, that we have covered for a century.

“We have the ambition and dedication to do this for the next century to come.”

Drawing on US military jargon, Koskull told shipping and offshore executives they were operating in a world changing at a record pace, which would never be as slow again.

“The energy sector is going through a fundamental change as is transportation,” he said.

“I use an abbreviation at Nordea – I didn’t make it up – to describe the world we are living in as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.”

Koskull continued: “How do you then as a business leader, run a business in the VUCA world?

“I believe, one you have to become much more resilient, so you can weather shocks. You also need to become more agile. Resilience and agility give you strategic optionality.

“I believe resilience and agility are required in every industry and every sector by every company. We all need to be able to adapt faster and be able to sustain shocks we may not see where they are coming from.”

The executive said Nordea was adapting its own business to the new realities, with the sale of non-core assets and investments in technology.

“We want to invest in our core activities, our core customers and our core markets. That includes you people here,” he told the 650 shipping and offshore executives gathered at the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane.

“When we went into 2018 there was a lot of belief and optimism and we had quite a strong economic cycle behind us and we believed that would continue,” he said.

“Now, 11 months later, that did not pan out as many people thought. We live in a VUCA world and it’s very difficult to predict the things that are coming.

“As business leaders we have to be able to manage through the cycles not for the cycle, which means it’s much more important to get the big things right.”

Speaking at a Nordea industry conference in London on Wednesday, Koskull said: “It is an industry, or group of industries, that we have covered for a century.

“We have the ambition and dedication to do this for the next century to come.”

Drawing on US military jargon, Koskull told shipping and offshore executives they were operating in a world changing at a record pace, which would never be as slow again.

“The energy sector is going through a fundamental change as is transportation,” he said.

“I use an abbreviation at Nordea – I didn’t make it up – to describe the world we are living in as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.”

Koskull continued: “How do you then as a business leader, run a business in the VUCA world?

“I believe, one you have to become much more resilient, so you can weather shocks. You also need to become more agile. Resilience and agility give you strategic optionality.

“I believe resilience and agility are required in every industry and every sector by every company. We all need to be able to adapt faster and be able to sustain shocks we may not see where they are coming from.”

The executive said Nordea was adapting its own business to the new realities, with the sale of non-core assets and investments in technology.

“We want to invest in our core activities, our core customers and our core markets. That includes you people here,” he told the 650 shipping and offshore executives gathered at the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane.

“When we went into 2018 there was a lot of belief and optimism and we had quite a strong economic cycle behind us and we believed that would continue,” he said.

“Now, 11 months later, that did not pan out as many people thought. We live in a VUCA world and it’s very difficult to predict the things that are coming.

“As business leaders we have to be able to manage through the cycles not for the cycle, which means it’s much more important to get the big things right.”

Digital subscription

Buy 2019.

Get 2018 Free.

Digital trial

14 day Free Trial

More subscription offers

NHST Global Publications AS use technologies such as cookies and other tracking scripts to analyse trends, administer our services, track user movements and to gather information about our whole user base. Unregistered users may opt-out of such tracking in the browser settings by ticking off “do not track me”. Read our cookie policy here.